All three of my boys went through various levels of picky eating, food favorites and meal shunning.
I expected that Ryan(10) would be the most
discerning. It is just his personality to be suspicious of anything. As a toddler he was food-opinionated, but as he has grown he has surprised me with his willingness to try new things and often like them.
Reid(7) went through some phases of food preferences, but those preferences were traditionally kid-type foods. It never was anything unexpected and he has always just
not eaten if he doesn’t like what is served. It has been pretty easy for me to manage.
Rhett(5) is a nightmare to feed. Every day it gets harder as he continues to cross things off his list of edible items:
white breadany breadtoast with the exception of Pepperidge Farms cinnamon swirl or brown sugar swirlcheeseanything with bread or cheesejelly with the exception of grapesyrup with the exception of blueberryhamburgershot dogspizza…duh, it has cheesevegetables with the exception of non-dressed lettuce and carrot sticksfruits with the exception of oranges peeled and de-pulped and blueberries or grapes (please notice theme of jelly and syrup above)milk or soymilk
The boy lives on peanut butter, oatmeal and the occasional Morning Star Farms Chik Patty. Meanwhile, I am disguising cheese and substituting crackers for bread. Often I just give up when dinner rolls around and he has little to nothing
acceptable to eat.
Oh well.
Last night I made pasta with meatballs and tomato sauce. Rhett looked at it very suspiciously, but was hungry.
It was either
endure my homemade dinner or go hungry.
He took a bite.
And then another.
And another.
This is the best food I have ever had!
I put the left-overs away and fed them to him for lunch and then again dinner tonight. It was three most balanced meals he has had in a year.
While he was feasting on leftovers, the rest of the family was enjoying pierogies and mushrooms (NOT on the list of Rhett-accepted foods). I looked over to where Rhett was sitting in his usual seat at the kitchen counter
which is above the silverware drawer…
*foreshadowing alert*
…and noticed that he was a huge mess.
His face was covered with tomato sauce.
His drinking glass was no longer clear.
His hands were red.
A moment later I watched as he reached BOTH HANDS into his pasta and brought two fists-full up to his mouth.
Rhett!
What?
Where is your fork?
He looked around his plate, his chair and then onto the floor and then looked up and replied…
I guess I just forgot to get one.
My kids can either eat what we serve, make themselves a sandwich or something else easy like a bowl of cereal, or go hungry. I don’t make anything different for the ones who don’t like what we are serving. And I do not make anyone eat something after the first taste, if they decide they do not like it.
I just found your page, and I think I may be slightly in love with your blogging.
Have a good one.
ahhhh! you made my day.
Thanks Sandra!
ROFL! Sounds like something my brothers would do! Although, I’m glad the three younger ones aren’t picky just the oldest. That’s another story though……
I have one kiddo that only eats peanut butter on either bread or crackers. He is going to be in for a rude awakening when he goes to camp this summer!!!
i love your article.. keep posting..
It always amazes me when kids refuse to eat kid food like pizza and hot dogs. On the bright side, at least he was eating and you got a funny blog post out of it.